Anaesthetic Care
From the simplest day-care procedure to the most complex multi-organ surgery, KG Hospital's anaesthesia team delivers subspeciality-matched care with the highest safety standards.
General anaesthesia (GA) renders the patient completely unconscious and pain-free during surgery. KG Hospital's team employs both traditional inhalational GA and Total Intravenous Anaesthesia (TIVA) — drug-infusion-based anaesthesia that avoids inhalational agents entirely, reducing nausea and providing smoother emergence. TIVA is preferred for neurological, ENT, and day-care surgeries.
Every GA case uses the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist, end-tidal CO₂ monitoring, BIS (depth-of-anaesthesia) monitoring, and full haemodynamic tracking.
Regional anaesthesia numbs a targeted body region — allowing surgery or providing prolonged post-operative analgesia — without rendering the patient fully unconscious. KG Hospital offers the full spectrum: spinal anaesthesia for lower-limb and abdominal surgery; epidural for labour, thoracic, and major abdominal procedures; combined spinal-epidural (CSE) for hip/knee replacement; and an extensive library of ultrasound-guided peripheral nerve blocks.
Ultrasound guidance has eliminated blind needle techniques, dramatically improving block accuracy and reducing complication rates.
- Dedicated ultrasound machine for block room — real-time needle visualisation
- Nerve stimulator backup for all major peripheral blocks
- Fascial-plane blocks (FICB, PECS, serratus) for opioid-sparing analgesia
Cardiac anaesthesia is among the most demanding subspecialities in medicine — managing haemodynamics during cardiopulmonary bypass, protecting myocardial function, and coordinating perfusion and anaesthetic depth simultaneously. KG Hospital's cardiac anaesthesiologists work alongside the cardiac surgery and cardiology teams on every open-heart, CABG, valve, and structural heart case including TAVI.
Transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE) is used intraoperatively to assess cardiac function, valve repair outcomes, and volume status in real time.
Neuro-anaesthesia demands a precise balance: sufficient depth for surgery, yet conditions that allow continuous neurological monitoring and, in awake procedures, active patient participation. For awake craniotomy — KG Hospital's signature procedure for eloquent-cortex brain tumours — the anaesthesiologist coordinates an Asleep-Awake-Asleep (AAA) protocol, managing sedation with dexmedetomidine and propofol while neurophysiologists map speech and motor function.
Neuro-protective strategies (mild hypothermia, ICP management, CO₂ control) are integral to all intracranial cases.
Paediatric anaesthesia requires age-specific pharmacology, weight-based dosing, specialised airway equipment, and understanding of neonatal physiology — especially temperature regulation, fluid balance, and the immature pulmonary circulation. KG Hospital's paediatric anaesthesiologists have supported the neurosurgery team in procedures as young as 22-day-old premature infants (World's First MINS), as well as paediatric cardiac surgeries and neonatal bowel and airway procedures.
Obstetric anaesthesia serves two patients simultaneously — mother and foetus. KG Hospital offers labour epidural analgesia for pain relief during vaginal delivery; spinal anaesthesia for elective and emergency caesarean section; and general anaesthesia when spinal is contraindicated. High-risk obstetric cases — pre-eclampsia, placenta praevia, cardiac disease in pregnancy — receive multidisciplinary pre-planning between the obstetrician, anaesthesiologist, and ICU team.
Unanticipated difficult intubation is the most feared airway emergency in anaesthesia. KG Hospital follows the Difficult Airway Society (DAS) algorithm and maintains a fully stocked Difficult Airway Trolley in every operating room. Awake fibre-optic intubation (AFOI) — performed with the patient awake and breathing spontaneously — is the gold standard for anticipated difficult airways from cervical spine pathology, maxillofacial tumours, burns, and angioedema.
KG Hospital's anaesthesiologists double as ICU intensivists, providing continuity of sedation, analgesia, and ventilator management from the operating room through post-operative recovery. The eCASH (Early Comfort using Analgesia, minimal Sedation, and maximal Humane care) protocol keeps patients calm but rousable, facilitating early physiotherapy and reducing ICU delirium.
Before the Operation Theatre
The Pre-Anaesthesia Clinic (PAC) at KG Hospital evaluates every elective surgical patient before their operation — identifying risk, optimising medical conditions, and designing an individualised anaesthetic plan.
Medical History & ASA Classification
Complete review of comorbidities, medications, allergies, and previous anaesthetic experiences. Patients are assigned an ASA physical status (I–V) to guide risk stratification.
Focused Investigations
Targeted pre-operative blood work, ECG, 2D echo, PFTs, and specialist consultations — only when clinically indicated, avoiding unnecessary delay or cost.
Airway Assessment
Mallampati, thyromental distance, neck mobility, mouth opening — prediction of difficult intubation and planning of AFOI or video laryngoscopy if needed.
Anaesthetic Plan & Consent
The anaesthesiologist explains the chosen technique — GA, spinal, epidural, regional, or combined — answers questions, and obtains informed consent with full risk discussion.
Pain Medicine Clinic
Chronic pain affects quality of life profoundly. KG Hospital's Pain Clinic combines pharmacological, interventional, and rehabilitative approaches for conditions that have failed simple analgesic treatment.
Spinal pain — lower back pain, cervical spondylosis, sciatica, facet arthropathy — is the most common chronic pain syndrome. KG Hospital's interventional pain physicians use fluoroscopy or C-arm guidance for precise injection of corticosteroids into the epidural space, facet joint, or around specific nerve roots, achieving targeted anti-inflammatory effect without systemic side effects.
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of medial branch nerves disrupts pain signalling from arthritic facet joints, providing 6–18 months of sustained relief.
Cancer pain management follows the WHO analgesic ladder and escalates to interventional techniques when oral or parenteral opioids are insufficient or cause intolerable side effects. KG Hospital performs coeliac plexus neurolysis for pancreatic cancer pain, superior hypogastric plexus block for pelvic malignancies, and intrathecal drug delivery systems (pain pumps) for refractory cancer pain.
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), post-herpetic neuralgia, diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and phantom limb pain require a blend of pharmacological and interventional strategies. Sympathetic blocks (stellate ganglion, lumbar sympathetic) address the autonomic component of CRPS. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is considered for refractory CRPS and failed-back surgery syndrome.
Never Stops Watching
Every operating room and ICU at KG Hospital is equipped with advanced monitoring — not as an option, but as a standard. Our anaesthesiologists interpret these monitors in real time, adjusting anaesthetic depth and haemodynamics continuously.
BIS Monitor
Bispectral Index tracks brain electrical activity, preventing both awareness under anaesthesia and excessive depth. Used routinely at KG Hospital for all GA cases.
Transoesophageal Echo (TOE)
Intraoperative TOE provides real-time cardiac imaging during cardiac and major vascular surgery — assessing valve function, ventricular filling, and regional wall motion.
Invasive Arterial & CVP
Beat-to-beat blood pressure via arterial line and central venous pressure monitoring for haemodynamically unstable patients, complex surgeries, and all cardiac cases.
TOF (Train-of-Four) Monitor
Quantitative neuromuscular monitoring ensures complete reversal of muscle relaxants before extubation — eliminating residual curarisation, a key cause of post-op respiratory complications.
Core Temperature Monitoring
Oesophageal or nasopharyngeal probes track core temperature during major surgeries. Normothermia maintenance reduces infection, bleeding, and cardiac complications.
WHO Surgical Safety Checklist
Mandatory Sign-In, Time-Out, and Sign-Out for every surgical case — a globally validated protocol that has demonstrably reduced surgical mortality and complications.
Choose KG Anaesthesia
Subspeciality Depth Across Every Surgical Domain
KG Hospital's anaesthesiology team is not a generalist group — each anaesthesiologist has subspeciality training in cardiac, neuro, paediatric, or regional anaesthesia, matched to the surgical programme they support. This means a cardiac anaesthesiologist manages every open-heart case; a neuro-anaesthesiologist manages every awake craniotomy. Subspeciality depth translates directly into safer outcomes.
Continuity from PAC to ICU
At KG Hospital, the anaesthesiologist who performs the Pre-Anaesthesia Clinic assessment also plans the intraoperative technique and — in complex cases — manages the patient in the ICU post-operatively. This continuity eliminates communication failures that often lead to adverse events when multiple disconnected teams care for the same patient.
Opioid-Sparing, Enhanced Recovery Protocols
KG Hospital follows Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) principles: regional anaesthesia, multimodal analgesia, early oral fluids, early mobilisation, and minimal opioids. Patients go home earlier, with less pain, less nausea, and fewer complications. ERAS protocols are active for colorectal, urological, orthopaedic, and thoracic cases.
Safety Culture, Not Just Checklists
NABH accreditation demands rigorous anaesthesia documentation, pre-operative assessment, and post-operative follow-up. But at KG Hospital, safety culture goes beyond compliance: regular morbidity and mortality reviews, simulation-based difficult airway drills, and mandatory debriefs after critical events create a learning environment that continuously improves outcomes.
